Cingular Wireless said on Thursday it redesigned its wireless Web offerings with a ticker service and options that make it easier to get news and weather on phones.
Along with rivals, Cingular, the No. 1 U.S. mobile service, has been working to expand its services beyond traditional phone calls in order to boost revenue as call prices fall and the number of potential new first-time customers dwindles.
But consumers have been slow to adopt services such as mobile Internet as Web surfing on phones is slower than on computers and it is more difficult to navigate the Internet on small phone screens.
Cingular, a venture of SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., hopes to increase Web usage with a ticker that scrolls headlines across the bottom of phone screens, letting users access an item of interest to them with just one click.
It has also revamped its more traditional Web options by making it possible for users decide what kind of Web sites are prominently displayed on the phone's main menu.
In the most recent quarter less than 10 percent of Cingular's average monthly revenue per user came from data services including Web browsing and text messaging.
"I expect there will be a significant increase in people using browser services," as a result of the revamp Jim Ryan, vice president of consumer data products at Cingular said.
Ovum analyst Roger Entner also said the ticker service should succeed in encouraging usage of data services because it does not force the user to wade through menus.
"The cool thing about the ticker is that it makes impulse information access a reality," Entner said. "Here the Web comes to you and that's why it will drive usage."
Cingular said that the ticker service would be available on more than
30 million of its phones in the next several weeks.Its next biggest rivals are Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon and Vodafone and Sprint Nextel Corp.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
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